I have a minor dilemma. Should I send in targeted LORs for Stanford (which will probably take 3 weeks from now to process) and thus send in my application not as early, or just send in my two general LORs which are already in and thus send in my application now? Thanks for your help in advance.

I have a minor dilemma. Should I send in targeted LORs for Stanford (which will probably take 3 weeks from now to process) and thus send in my application not as early, or just send in my two general LORs which are already in and thus send in my application now? Thanks for your help in advance.

Get one LOR targeted for Stanford (best one.. also needs to be fastest one) and ask your recommender to get it in this week.They do make decisions late though. I turned in my app last week even though I got my last Stanford targetted rec yesterday and I may even retake in December, and I'm not too worried about it.They mostly send out acceptances in Jan.

Extremely dumb question. What makes a rec "Stanford-targeted." My best rec for all schools is from a professor who happens to have taught there for a decade, a couple decades ago, but what on earth is he going to say other than Stanford is neato-skeato? Is that all that gets added?

ahduth wrote:Extremely dumb question. What makes a rec "Stanford-targeted." My best rec for all schools is from a professor who happens to have taught there for a decade, a couple decades ago, but what on earth is he going to say other than Stanford is neato-skeato? Is that all that gets added?

Dean Deal says that targeted letters are effective when the professor can say something about you that indicates a good fit for Stanford, e.g. you compare favorably to students that he knows who went on to top law schools like Stanford.

ahduth wrote:Extremely dumb question. What makes a rec "Stanford-targeted." My best rec for all schools is from a professor who happens to have taught there for a decade, a couple decades ago, but what on earth is he going to say other than Stanford is neato-skeato? Is that all that gets added?

Dean Deal says that targeted letters are effective when the professor can say something about you that indicates a good fit for Stanford, e.g. you compare favorably to students that he knows who went on to top law schools like Stanford.